Even after Charlottesville, Trump's core supporters are hanging on

Most Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s response to the violence in Virginia over the weekend, but his supporters are sticking with him, a new poll from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist indicates.

While just over half of the people interviewed said that Trump’s response to the events in Charlottesville wasn’t strong enough, 27 percent thought Trump’s response was, and among that group were the nearly 60 percent of Republicans who have consistently lent Trump their unwavering support.

Eighty percent of the polling was done after Trump gave his off-the-cuff press conference Tuesday from the gold-plated lobby of Trump Tower in New York, where he defended the white nationalists who rallied in Charlottesville.

And his approval rating hasn’t dipped meaningfully in the last week, according to major polls — Gallup had his approval rating at 36 percent last week, same as it is this week.

Though Trump’s base is staying with him, high-up conservatives are leaving him behind. Two Republican former presidents have voiced their disapproval of Trump’s response; Trump’s advisory councils disbanded after a bunch of CEOs jumped ship in protest; and members of Trump’s own entourage — like Gary Cohn, John Kelly, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump — are pushing back on Trump’s response to Charlottesville internally, according to the Washington Post.

Some other interesting results from the poll:

• Two-thirds of respondents — including more than 60 percent of self-identified strong Republicans — also said they thought that the driving of a car into a crowd of protesters should be investigated as an act of domestic terrorism.
• Half of respondents mostly agree with what they know of the views of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Worth noting, too, that most Americans (62 percent) think that Confederate monuments should not be torn down, according to the poll.